Mr. Plummer can be an aloof, fairly cool screen presence and he chills Getty Sr. with cruel glints, funereal insinuation and a controlled, withholding physicality. A lot of actors soften their heavies, as if nervously asserting their own humanity. With Mr. Scott, Mr. Plummer instead creates a rapacious man whose hunger for wealth and power (and more money, always more) has hollowed him out and whose fatherly touch, at its most consuming, brings to mind Goya’s painting of Saturn eating his son. The horror of Getty Sr. is that he is never less than human, but that he’s hoarded everything, including every last vestige of love, for himself. It’s a magnificent portrait of self-annihilation.

Of course, we aren’t surprised by this—we have known Chris for a very long time and we’ve seen him in many memorable performances.All The Money in The World is showing at a movie theater near you.